Food presses are used to flatten food, such as meat, chicken, or fish, against a cooking surface, so that the heat of the cooking surface is distributed evenly around the food, causing it to brown uniformly. Without a food press to flatten the food against the cooking surface, the food may curl up, and heat may be distributed unevenly, causing the food to burn in some areas and to remain under-cooked in others.
Food presses exist in the art of cooking utensils, but such food presses present obstacles that prevent optimal food preparation. For example, existing food presses are made to a single, particular weight. A food press may be too light-weight to accomplish its purpose, i.e., to keep the food flat against the cooking surface while the food is cooking. Alternatively, other food presses may be too heavy for certain foods, and may crush the food beyond merely flattening it against the cooking surface. For instance, while a heavy food press may be well-adapted for a thick steak or a chop, the heavier weight is inappropriate for browning a relatively less-dense, more delicate fish filet, chicken filet, potatoes, vegetables and/or fruits. The latter fare would be crushed by a heavy food press, and possibly burned during cooking. Conversely, a light-weight food press may not suffice to flatten and evenly cook the steak or a chop, while it will suffice for browning and cooking the fish, chicken, etc. Accordingly, unless a cook—for example, a chef, or a household user of such food presses—owns several food presses of different weights, the cook must use the same food press for all different food preparations and tolerate the cooking drawbacks.
A further drawback of having numerous food presses is that it is cumbersome to handle many different versions of essentially the same utensil while one is busy cooking. A cook may have to hunt around for one of several food presses while the cook also is busy with open flames and/or other hot surfaces, and/or while tending to several ongoing cooking projects that may require close attention. A need exists in the art for a food press whose weight can be varied conveniently to accommodate cooking different types of food, e.g., meat versus fish, on a cooking surface.
A further drawback currently in the art of cooking utensils is that food presses with solid, flat surfaces will cause the food to become soggy when used to cook food in a pan or on a griddle, because solid, flat surfaces do not allow moisture from the food and the cooking surface to vent as steam. Moisture thus becomes trapped around the food that is being pressed and cooked, and the cooked food is not cooked as desired, i.e., with even distribution of temperature for uniform cooking, and even browning.
It would also be convenient to have as part of a food press utensil a means for cleaning and/or preparing a cooking surface, for example a pan or griddle (wherein the term “griddle” also may be referred to herein, interchangeably, with the term “plancha”). That is, a food press utensil would be more useful if it could be applied easily to clean away debris on the cooking surface after the food is browned and removed, to prepare the cooking surface for further use. A scraping feature would address the current need in the art for a cook to reach for a separate tool, for example a spatula, to scrape the cooking surface, or to apply a food press awkwardly to the cleaning/scraping task.
Another food press drawback that exists in the art is that currently, food presses that have holes through the flat pressing surface are fitted to conform only to a pan of a particular size and shape, and are quite heavy, weighing five pounds. Such presses are not useful in pans that may be smaller than the surface area of the press itself, or in pans that hold more food than the food press can cover. Also, as discussed above, a heavy press is unsuitable for cooking more delicate fair that would be crushed by a heavy utensil. A need exists for food presses that have apertures through the flat food press surface to allow steam to vent, which also can be made in a variety of shapes and sizes, that can be varied in weight, and/or that can be configured to cover additional surface area beyond the amount covered by a single food press. Moreover, a need for better venting exists, that would allow more steam to escape and to optimize cooking quality.
The present invention addresses these needs. The following disclosure teaches different embodiments of a food press invention. The food press utensil invention comprises an apparatus with apertures through the food press surface to allow even browning. At least one additional food press utensil can be stacked on another, to vary the weight of the food press utensil incrementally, or in another embodiment, stackable weights can be added to the food press utensil to vary the weight. In a preferred embodiment, at least two food press utensils, and up to a plurality of food press utensils, can be configured to cover and press/cook food having a surface area greater than that of a single food press utensil. Preferred embodiments of the invention will have apertures through the food press surface to allow steam to vent and to prevent the food from becoming soggy as it cooks. A further embodiment comprises a scraper tool to facilitate cleaning and preparation of a cooking surface for cooking food.